Stanford, UCLA expect rainy battle

Updated 11:54 pm, Thursday, November 29, 2012

It's probably going to rain on the Pac-12's parade, but UCLA coach Jim Moradoesn't think either team would have the advantage in a downpour during Friday's conference championship game.

"It favors the team that executes the best," he said Thursday. "Some people think it would help the team that likes to grind it out, or that it might help the team that likes to get people out in space."

Those teams respectively would be Stanford and UCLA.

Stanford coach David Shawsaid the field at Stanford Stadium should be in good shape. The field, a slippery mess toward the end of last season, was redone in the offseason. "The rain doesn't really affect our style," he said.

One area that's not in great shape is ticket sales. Forecasts of rain have hurt, according to Stanford ticket manager Rich Muschell. He predicted a crowd of about 35,000 - 15,000 short of capacity.

Part of the problem was "we've been getting predictions of monsoon weather," he said. "One group that will be there in great numbers is the students. We'll have more students than we've ever had for a game, and they'll be there whether it's raining or not. It could be one big frat party."

It didn't help drive sales that the game is a rematch of last week's regular-season finale and that Stanford won the game handily.

New punter: Stanford junior punter/kicker Ben Rhynewill make his debut as the regular punter because of an injury to Daniel Zychlinski last week. Rhyne had two punts in that game for a 39.0-yard average.